Busy

The past several weeks have been crazy.

I drove into Chicago for the first time in my life on the 19th. I must say, I will always prefer to ride than drive, but at least I know I can do it. The Harvest Moon Ball Competition was that Saturday. I went with a friend of mine. It was a interesting weekend. The professional show was unlike anything I had ever seen. They were the World Latin Showdance Champions. I realize that doesn't mean much to most people, but suffice it to say, they were incredible. I drove home early Sunday morning on only about 2 hours of sleep to get to work at the church. Then went on a hay ride with twenty people as a children's ministry outing. Shortly there after, I crashed for a solid 16 hours.

On the 20th, I realized one of my tires was losing air fast. Mom followed me to a tire place where I was told that my tire was too bald to fix and I would have to have a new one. Bummer. I then asked if all of my tires (besides the one I had fixed at the beginning of the summer) were in the same condition. I was told that they were and that the other two would need to be fixed before winter. This was a scary reality. I consider myself to be paying for college right now while working a full time job. I am paying to learn to dance so I can eventually get a job dancing, so it is similar to paying for college and just about as expensive. So with the showcase coming up, and the competition just around the corner, I was really bummed out. At staff meeting on Thursday, they were asking for prayer requests and I explained my situation. Low and behold, the next day I am told that a good friend of mine pulled some strings that he had and found me an incredible deal for the two tires I needed. I didn't ask him to do this for me. I wouldn't have asked him to do this for me. I was raised to be self-sufficient and that's what I am. But because he has a servant's heart, he found a way to help me out. I am so grateful. So my tires got fixed just before it started icing this weekend.

On Sunday, the 26th, I taught dance for the first time. It was incredible. A local church called me up and asked if I would teach for 6 to 8 weeks on a volunteer basis. I figured it was a step in the right direction to becoming a paid professional. As it turns out, there were several times while I was teaching, that I had an out of body experience, and realized that I was incredibly happy. I was smiling and laughing and enjoying myself. I got excited when the kids understood what I was teaching and was able to duplicate it (something that never occurred while i was student teaching). It was definitely a confirmation for me that I need to teach dance. I can't wait to teach dance. I will do whatever I have to do scrimping and saving in order to continue my training so I can do it.

I am training with Tim for the past several weeks for my showcase on December 7th. We are dancing a Bolero, which is a slow (requiring great control) rhythm dance. I am hopeful he will have a least half of the routine worked out by this Friday so we can start working on nit-picking instead of experimenting with what could work. For those of you who might like to attend, Tickets are on sale now. If you get them before the 14th, they are $25. If you get them after, it is $30. The ticket deadline is the 28th.

Sometimes dance is the best kind of therapy for me. I could not imagine a better line up than Tango last night and Paso Doble tonight. Here are some quotes I found online about each dance.

Tango

• When you embrace your partner do so gently, tenderly, as you would an infant. Or do it roughly - if you and s/he trust each other and have the skill to suggest violent passion, forcefulness that is just the right side of pain rather than being actual pain, actual damage.
• The body is closer, more intimate than in any other dance form. And yet the 2 legs move faster and with more deadly accuracy than in any other comparable dance. It is this combination of sensual, meditative, relaxed contact in the upper body and swift, almost martial arts-like repartee in the lower body that gives the tango its unique identity.
• A good tango dancer is someone who has rhythm and who has a good musical ear. He also has respect for the woman; to know what to do at the right time with the right partner. He adapts himself to the woman. He makes her feel that she is the best dancer. He dances for her.
• The forms of tango are like stages of a marriage. The American tango is like the beginning of a love affair, when you're both very romantic and on your best behavior. The Argentine tango is when you're in the heat of things and all kinds of emotions are flying: passion, anger, humor. The International tango is like the end of the marriage, when you're staying together for the sake of the children.
• Tango Showdance

Paso Doble

• It is full of energy, strict and powerful. With his haughty, bold pride the dancer expresses his superiority like a Torero. He convincingly transfers this solemn appeal to the audience. The woman, on the other hand, generates a self-confident distance to him, without surrendering to the power of the master. She is the literal image of the “Capa”; the red cloth that the Torero uses to keep the bull under control, and is, like this, lithe, agile and elegant.
• This dance teaches discipline and gives the couple rather little artistic freedom. It requires a lot of practice on the other hand, and should be taught regularly and early in the dancer’s career because it demands a lot of expressiveness and musicality. Furthermore it is very exhausting and requires the use of every single muscle. In the closed pose the dancers have continuous body contact from chest to thigh. This leads to the touching hands being held much higher than in all the other competition dances. In the promenade position the body contact is released and the Paso Doble danced with great distance.
• Beata & Michael Wentink

Denial

Do you ever have days when you think "This is not my life"? Sometimes this can be an amazing thing. I experienced a positive version of this in February at the Indiana Challenge Ballroom Competition. I had joined the world of glitter and glam and high society and found myself thinking, "This is not my life." I couldn't figure out how I had gone from babysitting in sweatpants to wearing a ballgown and watching professional ballroom dancers. It was a great realization.

However, lately, my life has taken a jump on the other side. I work pretty hard to keep the drama levels in my life down to a dull roar. This does not mean that I don't like to be dramatic. (I love to tell stories in a dramatic way and sometimes I like to be a bit of a diva). But I try to keep actual drama down and I don't usually associate with people who have a great deal of real drama in their lives. Again, I don't mind it if they like to hype of their dull life like I do, but the presence of real drama makes me want to run.

I have two new friends who have brought with them a storm of real drama. It was a subtle slow beginning or I would have likely fled. But I find myself in the exact middle of several scandalous situations and I find myself thinking, "This is not my life." I work hard to preserve my drama free world. I keep my emotions at bay 95 percent of the time, and yet, here I am stuck in the middle of two friends. How did I get here. How can I get out of the middle? It's odd to me that this drama has now consumed 85 percent of my time and I really have nothing to do with it other than being the mutual friend. Odd.

Sorry, just needed to rant. Feeling quite exhausted and overwhelmed and headed into a sure to be drama filled weekend.